Carry-out trays and cartons for carrying foods and beverages from fast food restaurants and food vendors such as those at ball parks are widely used. The trays are generally made of a paperboard sheet material folded to form various food and beverage compartments. The compartments are designed to separate different food items and to allow individuals to carry several food items while preventing spillage. Such trays in the past have been designed to be stored in flat configurations and then manipulated just prior to use by a food service supplier into an upright or erect position thus allowing efficient storage and quick conversion to a food carrying tray product.
However, prior art designs had defects such that the trays became unstable when several food products and beverages were placed into the tray, often leading to spillage of the food and beverage products. Additionally, the prior art trays oftentimes required significant manipulation in order to be transformed from the lay flat configuration to the erect usable condition. Also, once in a usable condition the prior art food service trays did not automatically lock into an upright usable position resulting in additional food service supplier time to ready the tray for carry-out use.